Public Accounts committee  Well, there's no such thing as a contract—

Public Accounts committee  We don't have an employment contract. We don't have that model. The Australian government has that model, and in that model, deputies basically sign contracts. We're saying that under this model we've codified those roles in legislation in order to be very clear about the respons

Public Accounts committee  There are different kinds of consequences. There are what we call the institutional consequences, in terms of certain principles or policies that we set out in the Treasury Board that we expect departments to comply with. We cannot police every single transaction--it's simply not

Public Accounts committee  No. We have a number of different sources that we look at. As I said, we undertake an assessment of their overall competency in the department through our management accountability framework assessment, we review the Treasury Board submissions that come in, and we review internal

Public Accounts committee  There are cases under the policies that we have. Of course, we have a significant number of policies, and there are times when a department may not be consistent with the policies that we have put in place. As a result, we would recommend to the Treasury Board that certain action

Public Accounts committee  For example, there could be certain conditions and terms of when they have to come back to the board to seek approval. They may have signed a contract that in fact was not within their authority. These kinds of issues can take place. In those cases, we have a number of tools at

Public Accounts committee  In departments, we are moving to a model in which all departments would have a chief financial officer who is responsible for the overall financial management within that department and reporting through to the—

Public Accounts committee  Again, some of the smaller agencies will not have a chief financial officer. They will have a financial capacity, but not a senior financial officer like in the larger departments.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make a short opening statement, and then we can move from there. Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by congratulating you undertaking a study on the roles and responsibilities of the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada. Though I was not a